A lot of people will be excited to return to the gym with covid lockdown restrictions easing, but we would just like to stress the importance of easing in to it, and building up the weight slowly instead of trying to lift heavy straight away. If you’ve had to resort to body weight exercises or light weight resistance training (like me), your body will have deconditioned, meaning that it has lost the ability to tolerate the weight you used to do. This means that if you go back to the gym and start trying to lift heavy weight again, you leave yourself susceptible to injuries like tendinitis, strains and more.
The good thing is that you do not have to lift heavy weights, or be extremely sore the next day to reap the benefits of the gym.
We recommend reducing the intensity/load of your workouts by about 60% at first, and gradually building back up with time. Initially it will be important to focus on your form as the time off may have led to you becoming less efficient with the correct movement pattern of the exercise. Over each week if you feel stable and confident raise the intensity by around 10%.
It may also help in the first few weeks to make sure you leave a couple reps in reserve, meaning that when you finish the set that you would be able to do a few more if you needed to. With that in mind, remember to enjoy your workouts as there are so many physical and mental benefits to using the gym!
Furthermore, if you’d like more exercise advice, or find yourself injured or sore due to your return to the gym or life’s everyday activities, then make sure you book into the clinic for a treatment.
Until the next post, stay healthy!